Sixteen
by dgj212
Summary: He once thought that if he had a quirk, an ability, it wouldn't matter what kind it was. He firmly believed that so long as it gave him a shot he could make it work and be a hero. He was grossly naive.
1. One Chance

I'm not sorry.

Let's boogie ψ(｀∇´)ψ

I don't own MHA/BnHA or Worm.

* * *

Time was irrelevant.

It might have started off as something to hold on to. Something that wasn't completely despair or angst in of itself. But sadly she couldn't tell time. Not correctly anyway. That madman's tech saw to that, not that she thought it was intentional, like it mattered. If she had some control over it, it might help, but even then it wasn't much. Whatever his tech did to preserve her, it would cut her consciousness here and there.

A minute could be a day for all she knew, or even cared for that matter. It might have mattered if people were nearby. But she couldn't sense them. Even then she would only sense dark emotions. The little psychotic twerp might've been, well, a twerp, but she knew her stuff and was very thorough.

How long has time passed?

She couldn't tell.

She could tell she fell. Her tomb moved against her will once in a while. That was something. Well...at least she wasn't alone in her imprisonment.

Once more she felt her tomb move, not only that, she felt the vibrations through her flesh.

Then she began to hear it again. Songs of angst and of despair. Joy or something brighter would have been preferred to jealousy, fear, and hatred, but after going so long without sensing any people, she welcomed it all the same. After an eternity, she was finally going to have a new opportunity and revelled in that shred of hope.

They all did.

* * *

"Man, did you hear, they found more floating boats with their crew dead," Some kid said.

"What the hell kind of villain is this?" Another kid asked.

"Wut even is the point of doing this?" A third kid asked.

Izuku heard the conversation, but everything they were talking about was something he had already read about online. It started after a huge earthquake occurred somewhere in the ocean, at least according to experts. After that people started to find boats drifting with their entire crew either dead or missing. And the weird part about these dead crew...its either suicide or killing each other, as in mutually killing each other.

The exact gruesome details weren't given to the public, but there were times when a few streamers would run into these floating boats and accidentally record the deceased...and then post the unedited footage somewhere online.

People started giving names to what experts are sure is a string of murders. "Davy Jone's Harvest," was a popular one.

No one was really sure why this was happening, only that it took place in the ocean and that it was slowly making its way to Japan.

Supposedly, heroes who specialize in sea operations from around the world are trying to help, but are not sure how "Davy Jones" is forcing people to commit suicide or kill each other, thus unable to come up with a proper plan of approach.

Izuku was knocked out of his thoughts when he heard the thunder. A shiver ran through his body, you could practically see it through his middle school uniform.

A storm was coming and it was supposed to be a violent one.

* * *

Her little trick was working. It wasn't much but thankfully the vectors of her new abilities extended outside her sarcophagus, she could float her sarcophagus high enough and let what she was sure were currents take her.

Her powers were still limited to giving people uncontrollable suicidal tendency but thanks to her "dear" brother and his friends, she now has the tools to do more. It was still a work in progress but she was getting better.

She could feel it. People. All of it without filter.

In the beginning, it was torture. But after not being in touch with the others via her original powers for a LONG time, it was still torture. But she was able to bear it better.

She could feel it.

Just a little longer…

* * *

"Ah!" Izuku let out as he caught himself from slipping.

The storm had hit a little early and it was starting to pour. Thankfully he had his umbrella, sadly the wind was making it very unwieldy and the rain coming in at an angle didn't help.

BOOM!

Izuku jumped in place.

"Damn it, this was a shit umbrella!" He turned to see a group of guys loitering about in some alley that sheltered them from the storm. The most notable of the group was a blond boy with spiky hair holding a ruined umbrella he was blowing up with his quirk.

"Heh heh heh, that's what you get for being stingy, Bakugo," one of the other guys laughed. "You buy cheap you get cheap."

"FUCK!" Bakugo cussed as he tossed the umbrella up and spiked with the use of his explosive quirk to really send it flying.

"Hey Bakugo, that Deku squirt walks around he right?" The last guy asked while nudging Bakugo. "Didn't he bring that big umbrella to school today? Let's just 'borro-"

Izuku quickly walked as fast he could and took a turn he normally didn't take.

Bakugo and friends...were actually friends of Izuku once. Before they all got their quirks. It was like a bad twist in friends flick. One day they were best friends, the next Bakugo was his bully with a mission to make life miserable. All because he didn't have a quirk.

As Izuku walked he glanced at the people around him.

A lot of people used umbrellas but he could see some people using their quirks to shield themselves. Normally that was frowned upon but people tended to care less in situations such as these.

He couldn't help it. He felt jealous.

His whole life people had looked down on him for not having a quirk, being told...he couldn't be a hero without a quirk.

_If I just had a quirk, an ability, something, anything! I could make it work. I could be a hero!_ He couldn't help but think in his head.

At times it felt that so long as he was given the opportunity, any power would do, he'd be able to make it work.

He glanced behind him and noted that Bakugo was sharing an umbrella with his friends but was obviously looking for something.

Izuku moved deeper into a crowd.

* * *

Definitely a setback. But nothing she couldn't handle.

Mannequin, and the bloody munchkin, Bonesaw, we're good, but even tinker tech has its limits, especially without maintenance. How many lifetimes had she lived? Enough to erode her sarcophagus, cracks just big enough for her to work unrefined matter into. Sand, silt, water and the like, mostly sand. Definitely not enough to crack her shell to freedom, but it was enough to move her sarcophagus forward, towards the music.

It was painful but she could bear with it.

Just a little bit closer.

She just needed someone, anyone who wasn't in a bad mood to be a tiny bit curious.

She couldn't see, her original powers gave her only bitter-harsh music.

But oh, after lifetimes of fantasy, back and forths with the others, after they finally came around to her line of thinking, she had a plan.

"Dear" Jean-Alec-Paul, that infuriating fuck-up of a brother got her everything she needed. Not directly, but it was enough.

She saw it.

A cardiovascular system just outside her tomb, one she didn't sense with her original powers

They all smiled.

* * *

"Huh?" Izuku let out as he looked down.

He had taken a very roundabout detour in order to avoid Bakugo and his friends. He found himself walking alone along Dagobah beach, basically a landfill the city had never bothered to clean up. The rain and wind had calmed down some, but he still had his umbrella open. He was by the sidewalk, near one of the trails without garbage when he spotted it.

It was some sort of giant egg-shaped thing made of something white, or at least he assumed it was white. The whiteness had been browned and stained in certain areas.

At first, he thought it was floating to the shore, but then he realized it was actually moving. It was like it was manipulating the ground to push itself forward.

All his thoughts basically disappeared when he spotted that detail.

He just stared at it.

His mind began to furiously ponder what the heck the thing was doing? Did it control sand or could it control anything else? Was it human? Was it a fish or a plant? Was it something else entirely?

Before he realized it, he was standing in front of the thing, give or take a few meters. It had made it across the beach with the crashing waves and was in the middle of the sidewalk with a bunch of sand surrounding it. Suddenly the sand began to reshape itself until it spelled something.

S.O._S_

"Huh? Isn't that...help or something?" Izuku asked he carefully approached the large egg. It was about his height. Once he got close, the sand suddenly began to clump together. He flinched in surprise but he wasn't scared, he just watched in interest.

"No not just sand," he muttered. Gravel and stone from in between the sidewalk were also mixed in. Despite the waves and the wind, he could hear the dirt, sand, stones, and everything else get compacted into something. A hammer with a point on one end.

Izuku didn't understand until the hammer moved towards him.

"Wait, you want me to pick it up?" Izuku asked but he got no reply. The hammer kept moving towards him.

Hesitantly he put the umbrella down, his body now exposed to the rain, and gently picked the newly shaped hammer up. It felt solid in his hands, almost as if it was solid the entire time and not made of sand or dirt and whatever else was mixed in.

Why did this egg thing want him to pick up a hammer? Didn't it want help or something? Should he get an adult or pro her-

Rage. Pure unadulterated rage.

He swung the hammer down on the giant egg-like object with as much force as he could muster! He felt incredibly angry for no reason and he began to take it out on the object!

For a second he felt despair. The feeling that the very world was against him and there was nothing he could do, enough to do anything to stop the feeling. But rage, that overpowered the sensation, it kept him going!

With each swing of the hammer, he felt a crunch that sent a jolt of pleasure down his spine. Pleasure he never even knew he was missing. Like crunch from a toast or breaking an egg to consume its innards.

_Crunch_

**Crunch**

**CRUNCH**

It intoxicated him through the anger and depression, turning his mind into a jumbled amalgam of emotions! He shouted as he kept swinging the hammer!

His frustration, his sudden gush of anger!

**CRUNCH**

His sadness, his feeling of worthlessness!

**CRUNCH**

All crushed by a sudden, but oh so fucking brief, feeling relief when there was an impact, a joy brought on by the very swing of the hammer!

**CRWSH**

His body spent, his hands blistered and skinned, his breath broken and ragged; still, he brought the hammer up one last time and roared a cry he didn't even know he was capable of!

**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"** He brought the hammer down with every last bit of strength he had left!

**SQWHSH!**

He huffed as he caught his breath. The slurry of emotions slowly ebbed away until all that was left was odd tranquillity.

His blood was on fire, his heart beating erratically in his ears, his vision swimming; he felt it all before but this time he was not in fear. This time, it felt...good wasn't the word. Relief. That was it, everything he felt and bottled up inside, he vented it. Now, he felt lighter.

Then he started to calm down and gain better control of himself and take in more of his surroundings and process his actions.

He dropped the hammer.

His body fell backward, his eyes beating as he stared at was used to be an egg-shaped object. It was smashed with bits of blood and flesh going everywhere and it smelled absolutely putrid. Then Izuku saw it: eyes, teeth, and even hair.

His mouth fell open into a silent scream. He brought a hand up to his mouth but stopped when he looked at it. His soft palms were skinned and the back of his hand had specks of blood.

_I did this._ His mind processed.

Izuku body began to shake uncontrollably. His mind felt numb and his stomach felt like it was trying to escape, oxygen refused to enter his lips!

_I-I KILLED SOM-_

There was a crash.

Not hostility

Tradition With Purpose

An Injection.

Thousands of Earths all arranged in mirrors, folding and expanding without end.

Ad Infinitum

Probe Online

Progress

[*]

[**]

[***]

[****]

[*****]

…

[***************]

Current Vessel Ongoing….

Ongoing…..

Ongoing….

Ongoing….

Ongoing….

Ongoing….

[$ #$*&$%]

Locating….

Destination Acquired

Earth far from clusters

One candidate

Logical

Izuku blinked.

He looked at his hands. Blood still on the back, but his palms...they were healed.

He froze.

None-existent arms passionately wrapped around his neck, a spectre he knew that did not exist yet he felt the touch all the same. Hair brushed against his own, yet his hair remained untouched. A girl he never met yet he felt intimately connected to brought her lips to his ear.

_"Good boy~"_ she murmured, the words echoing in his mind as more and more voices made themselves known…


	2. puzzle

I don't own MHA/BnHA or Worm

* * *

Izuku rested on the rooftop of a building close to his middle school.

He ate the sandwich his mother packed, pork cutlet.

He was far from the bullies that looked for him and far from the clutter of other students. No one has punished or chided him for being up there so far so he decided to keep doing it.

He brought up his notebook and opened to a recent drawing of a hero he met this morning. It wasn't like the previous sketches he made, these drawings were more detailed and realistic. A small plus of his...circumstance.

He took another bite as he stared at the image, feeling the numbers at the edge of his awareness.

"Here," a girl pointed at the feet of the drawing with her bony finger, her a voice feminine yet nasally, "the way he moved suggests that the armor is pretty finicky," she explained and Izuku nodded as he followed along. He could see and understand what she spoke about, numbers and equations, rules and theories, knowledge and experience he never accumulated appearing out of nowhere.

He glanced at her.

She was a slim young woman, barely in her twenties though Izuku wasn't sure if he was a good judge of age. She had an overly modest bust and tanned skin that was on the darker side. Her face was freckled and she wore large round glasses over her blue eyes, she had short brown hair that bordered red that was cut at the sides but a bit longer on the top that poked down a little from her forehead. Her mouth was parted as she looked at the drawing, giving Izuku a good look at her braces. At first he mistook her for a guy on the feminine side, but after spending time with her, he found her to be attractive in her own right. The name she gave him was Astar.

"Yeah, see here," she continued, "if the ground suddenly became uneven by a certain degree, he'd fall not because he was caught by surprise or because of the slope, but because the design didn't consider-"

"Ye-yeah, I see it Astar," Izuku said, "then, that would mean that it wouldn't take much to turn his suit against him, and not only that, look at the joints!"

"Yes-YES!" She said excitedly with an excited smile, "here and here, something small, like, like a pebble, jam it here and here, and the suit of armor becomes a prison!"

He could see and understand the structural weakness in things, like the hero's armor. He wasn't planning on attacking the hero, ever, but he found that doing stuff like this was pretty fun and Astar was a great person to work with. Plus the ability was already on the weaker side of things, of which he only inherited a portion of, and couldn't be used at the drop of a hat. It had to be used well before a fight came to be. It also didn't grant things like foresight or planning or anything. He did find he could remember more and more details, but he couldn't visualize them in his head, he had to jot it down. Hence the boost to his drawing skills.

He glanced at Astar again. Her clothes looked better. Her jeans were less stained and her yellow shirt and grey hoodie we're becoming cleaner.

Izuku smiled.

"Five," another girl said, her voice filled with cruel mirth, utterly destroying the atmosphere the duo had created.

Izuku could feel Astar freeze, practically paralyzed in terror.

"Cherish," Izuku attempted to warn said individual to stop. He didn't succeed.

"How did it feel when you pulled that wire? Lit the entire hospital on fire," Cherish continued. "Wails of the burning and dying, their screams invigorating and electrifying," she continued.

"Stop" Astar began, her face morphing to that of terror.

"Tell me, Five," she addressed Astar.

"Cherish stop!" Izuku said loudly.

"Were you able to enjoy it? Seeing others crumble like miserable worms, writhing in their own blood and filth as they begged for mercy?

"No-no-no, that, that, that wasn't, that wasn't me, that wasn't me," she muttered as she began to hug herself whilst trembling, her appearance visibly becoming more and more grotesque and sickening. Her healthy skin becoming pale, her eyes turning bloodshot, blood speckling her freckled face, her teeth becoming bloody with flecks of flesh stuck to her braces.

Izuku gave a small curse.

Astar was gone. Folded and separated from the others as he brought his victim to the forefront.

"There we go," Cherish said with a smile as she looked at self, her form becoming more visible. She wore boots, jeans, and a top that covered most of her body, but Izuku could sort of tell she has tattoos on her shoulder. She had white skin, dark hair with a red streak running through it (dyed), and an innocent smile that infuriated him.

"Why?" he couldn't help but ask as he leered at Cherish. She was close to his age but definitely older, not twenties yet but again he wasn't a great judge of age.

"Cause I can," she replied honestly. "Also, it took me lifetimes," Cherish began as she paced around his field of vision, Izuku deciding to take bites of his sandwich, "literal lifetimes to learn about each and every single thing I could from those demented fucks to be able to argue and control them, and here you are, doing some sort of therapy session while not being driven insane. It's unfair," she whined.

"I didn't ask for this," Izuku replied as he glared at her.

"Sweetie, don't glare, it looks like your trying to cry instead of being mad," Cherish chided. "Honestly though, a ridiculous and utterly useless thinker ability that somehow helps you manage The Butcher? Is this really a coincidence or is some asshole out there somewhere really just pissed at me?"

After that day, after he...killed Cherish, he gained an ability of his own. He didn't even know what to call it, heck, he could barely describe it and he wasn't sure if it was an accurate description!

When he first heard the voices, he was terrified and even more chilling is that it wasn't just limited to sounds, he would get brief graphic images and alien ideas, subliminal messages sent directly to his mind. Not long after, he found he could do something very strange, he could alter his mind.

He found he could "quarter" his mind, "folding" his consciousness into itself, creating layers upon layers he used to suppress the voices. It wasn't ironclad, the voices, desperate to be heard, would find themselves out of the folds and back to driving him insane. To add to that, the folds required a conscious effort to maintain.

He got better at maintaining the folds and found that he could fold his mind into intricate and elaborate labyrinths of different dimensions, enough to keep the voices busy. Unfortunately it didn't give him any benefits aside from keeping the voice at bay. Maybe it could be used as anti-interrogation or something, but it didn't sharpen his thinking, enhanced his thought process, or let him shunt off reality. It's a useless ability that allowed him to remain sane.

While continuously folding his mind he discovered he could separate the voices and talk to each one individually. In the process, his mind would sort of animate them, giving the different voices a body. Their appearance acted as a sort of Geiger counter, letting him judge in what kind of state of mind the voices were in.

His plan was to talk to the most sympathetic of voices, see if he could reform them, or at the very least make them less of a problem. The rest, the ones who revelled in the identity of "The Butcher," he'd keep them suppressed and silent for as long as he could.

Just one problem with that plan.

"Let's go to the mall," Cherish said.

"Can't," Izuku said as he finished his sandwich, "lunch is almost over and scho-"

"Boring and unimportant," she said as she looked at the said building. "I mean really, spending most of your days trapped in a box with others. Say what you want about dad, but at least he had the right idea."

"Your dad?"

"Yup, may he have suffered an excruciating and horrible death and be burning in darkest pits of hell if it exists," she prayed, which did more than unnerve Izuku. Maybe if he-

"You can trap me again, but I'm not like the other 14 echoes," Cherish suddenly said, a little smugness to her voice. "Unlike them, I spent the longest time as The Butcher and I was very intimate with all of them. Don't get me wrong, it was annoying as hell getting them organized, but it was worth it. I'm more there then they are, heck even the portion of my power you got is bigger than the other 14. You can hear it can't you?"

He could. Cherish's ability, she could hear people's emotions and even influence them. It came off as music, the different emotions embodying different genres with their mental state represented by the rhythm of the song. Apparently she could hear the songs from an entire city's worth of people, before she used one of the Butcher's abilities to throw Izuku into a mindless rage to kill her. She was very smug when she explained that part….

Now though, he could hear people's emotions from up to a half a city if he concentrated and he couldn't affect people's emotion unless he was really close to them, practically touching distance, not that he wanted to.

"Every echo has a piece of me," She said with a smirk, "I can break out of the maze and I can guide them too if I want."

Izuku didn't say anything, he just glared at the girl he murdered. Then sighed at that absurdity. He quickly rearranged his mind.

"So let's head to the mall-"

"Nope class is going to begin."

"So what it's...Oh no you d-"

Izuku folded his mind and brought up another voice, another Echo as Cherish called it. One of the Teeth, the name of the organization The Butcher reigned over. This one was preferred to be called Butchert VI. Butcher VI was the one, if he followed it correctly, who killed Astar. VI didn't have a discernible gender, had pale green skin, black soulless eyes, and was bald. VI wore a blood-stained white overcoat with a hoodie decorated in teeth and severed dried fingers. There really wasn't a pattern to the decor, it seemed like the sick trophies were placed wherever there was space.

"Your weak," VI began, sickening and grotesque images began floating through his consciousness, children his age reduced to specks of flesh, people screaming as their fingers were bitten off. "Pathetic little morsel."

Izuku tuned VI out as he used VI's power, explosive teleportation. Contrary to the name, the explosion didn't make a sound nor did it have to be at full power, but the force was there. Earlier when Cherish was out he was able to find people and gambled that he could teleport without being seen. The teleportation were short hops. He couldn't appear over mid-air or water, he had to appear on solid ground. It did have a cool down so he had to time his teleportation carefully.

Ignoring VI's taunts and crude imagery, he teleported back to his school, avoiding people whenever he could.

He sighed as he walked inside the building, folding VI back into the maze.

It was just another day….

* * *

Izuku let out a silent hiss as he covered his mouth.

He didn't think it was possible.

Cherish has somehow broken his mind, not literally, just the maze he created. She literally had the echoes that would listen to her press against certain areas of the maze he had folded and it became undone.

And now they were once again tormenting him. Various ideas and images flashed through his head as the former Butchers tried to harass him into killing himself, others, and worse. He took slow breaths as he calmed himself down. It wasn't all of them.

He was in class, right in the middle of the classroom. He couldn't let anyone know what was happening to him.

"Work with me and I can work with you," Cherish's voice became clearer than the others, "truthfully I rather a girl, but you'll have to do," she said offhandedly, though he could tell that she was pleased. "Until a girl kills you, anyway," she added. "I'm going to live vicariously through you, you can make this difficult and or you can work with me."

He folded them all away.

"Difficult it is then," Cherish's voice had not disappeared. He felt like cursing but he settled for gritting his teeth. He could feel the folds in his mind being pressed against with vigor. He needed to reinforce the folds.

He folded his mind in a new pattern he thought of, lots of triangles in a three-dimensional space along with two-dimensional ones with traps that would leave the echoes trapped in one-dimension before they figure out how to escape. That always seemed to do the trick. He disguised it as two-dimensional corridors and they'd fall for it every time.

Once he felt satisfied, he opened his notebook to an empty page and began designing a new maze.

He felt dread.

How long could he keep this up?

He recently got into making puzzles and mazes so he was far from good at it, also, the echoes of people who donned the mantle The Butcher were not dumb. Sure, they were fragments of what they were but that didn't mean they were not capable. But Cherish really wasn't like the rest. Unlike the others, he could feel that Cherish was alive. She was living despite the state she was in. He didn't know what to make of that. She stated it a bunch of times, she was in that egg thing for a long time. Apparently, it was some unprecedented thing for The Butcher.

He could feel them prodding his mind again, trying to fold it open.

He closed his eyes and did a mental tally of his allowance. He was going to buy a new puzzle book afterschool.

He opened them and looked at the student seated a few seats in front of him. Bakugo. His bully. He got bullied a few times and when it happened, Izuku could barely manage to keep the echoes under wrap. Each one telling him to stand up remove the nuisance. To kill Bakugo.

Izuku closed his eyes again.

For both his and his bullies' sakes, he would need to avoid them. Last time they got the drop on him, he could feel I's agony inflicting powers and Cherish's depression at his fingertips like a loaded gun. He nearly he pulled the trigger.

He hated it but The Butchers do seem to like Cherish, enough to listen to her at least and her powers were the best at moving around unnoticed...

Looks like he was going to the mall after all.

* * *

"Fuck this is boring," Cherish said as she sat next to Izuku with her head resting on her hands. Izuku sat in a public area of the mall reading a book about designing puzzles. "We're at a mall, let's do something!"

He didn't comment. Puzzles were literally all that stood between him and insanity. Sadly he had to make puzzles on the spot, though to his credit he didn't actually need to make an exit, not that any of the echoes caught on to that tidbit (at least they didn't show it)but he does throw an exit for them to look for instead of squeezing out through the creases of the fold.

"C'mon, see those girls," she purposely pointed in his line of sight at a group of girls wearing middle school uniforms, roughly his age, the most noticeable one among them had pink skin and pink hair with black eyes and horns on her head.

"My power alone, even at this level is more than enough. Get up close and personal, a quick hello and hit them with lust, hunger, or satisfaction, maybe excitement when they see you and hear your voice. All three of them could fuck you, or give you a show, both even. Anything you want really. If you do it right, you could even wire them like dogs trained to salivate when they hear a bell. Hit them with excitement and pleasure every time they see you, eventually their minds would produce dopamine on their own. They'd be your personal whores, your very own har-"

"Not interested," Izuku said in a low voice as he flipped the page.

"Hey-if guys are your thing you could always go with that blonde guy with the explosion power, you could probably wire him with guilt and make him submissive, maybe even get him to dress up like a gi-"

"No thank you." He said firmly, his eyes fixed on an interesting passage. "I'm not like that," he mumbled, "with anyone," he added. Though he said that, he couldn't help but eye the pink girl. Girls moaning, shrieks of pleasure, whispers of ecstasy, writhing mess of naked bodies, all if it flashed through his head and licked his thoughts, some of them not even alien.

"Ah huh, sure," he could feel the smugness in her voice, he blushed a little as he did his best to hide the tent his was unwillingly pitching.

"Don't do that," he said. As he closed his eyes and used his book for cover, pretending he was resting.

"Then do something, this is fucking boring!"

"I don't have money," he mouthed.

"There's literally a guy playing guitar for scraps. Just get some off him, you could use my-"

He folded Cherish away.

"FUCKER!" he could her fading voice curse.

He sighed in relief.

He jumbled his mind and cycled for a new echo. This one was without a doubt the sanest one of the 15 echoes he has crawling around his mind.

"Alright, let's go," A man said as he stood tall. He wore black battle-worn body armor with a shield and castle insignia with the letters [PRT] inscribed inside. He had tanned Latin skin, a buzz cut that left his black hair close to his skin, brown eyes, sharp nose, chiselled jaw with a scar on the left edge. He was the one who became Butcher VII, PRT Captain, Andre: The Mission.

"Hm?" He let out when he didn't hear Izuku respond, he glanced at Izuku who still used his book as cover. "Oh. I see." He let out nonchalantly, making Izuku blush a bit more out of embarrassment.

* * *

"MOVE YER ASS! WE'RE NOT TAKING A STROLL, WE'RE RUNNING!" Andre shouted as he basically followed Izuku without actually moving, a bit like a ghost that glided everywhere. He stood tall, face mean, arms folded, and when he shouted Izuku could feel it in his bones. Which boggled his mind because it felt pretty real despite knowing it wasn't.

"YES SIR," Izuku shouted, not really caring if people gave him an odd look, though they were too few. He ran around inside a park nearby the beach (landfill) where he murdered Cherish.

"I SAID RUN YOU GREEN FUCK!"

Minutes later he was at a clearing in that park.

"ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME? DO I NEED TO BUST YOUR KNEECAPS TO BUMP YOU DOWN TO GIRL PUSH-UPS!"

"SIR NO SIR," Izuku shouted as he did pushups.

"FASTER MAGGOT!"

"YES SIR!"

Later at the beach (landfill).

"IT'S ONE FUCKING TIRE! ONE **FUCKING** TIRE!" Andrew shouted. "FUCKING MOVE IT!"

"YES SIR!" Izuku as he pushed a tire that was almost his height, who even put it in the beach (landfill)?

Hours later Izuku found himself at a small clearing of the beach he had made.

He was covered in sweat, his school uniform was in a bag, he just wore his wet shorts and work out shirt. He glanced at Andre, the man still tall even as he sat down. He seemed content to stare out to sea even as the last hues of light left the sea.

He was an imposing figure, but he was pretty calm. He was harsh during training but he was never like that out of it. He answered any questions Izuku asked. Something that boggled Izuku's mind was that, unlike the other echoes, Captain Andre was actually practically quirkle-er-normal when he killed The Butcher. That still took a while to get used to. A world where powers were not quirks.

Izuku didn't pry. Instead, he stuck to things to ask, like, power category.

"The difference between a Breaker and Changer is pretty simple," Andre answered calmly, "A changer uses their power to change, a Breaker has to change to use their powers. For example, a man who's power turned them to steel is the result of changer ability. A man needing to turn to steel in order to bend or manipulate something like fire or electricity is more in line with a breaker ability."

"Oh I see," Izuku said as he wrote it down. Twelve categories: brute, breaker, shaker, mover, thinker, tinker, changer, stranger, blaster, striker, master, and trump. Each category had notes and heroes and villains he's seen on the news that he could fit into each category.

The two settled into something of a comfortable silence.

"...Hey, Captain," Izuku ventured, "if you don't mind me asking, what changed your mind, why did you decide to help me?"

"Because it reduces the chance of you dying and passing The Butcher to someone else. Also, I figure that if I help you, you'd be more inclined to listen to me. Hopefully I can convince you to live in isolation some time down the line," He replied calmly and without hesitation.

"That's...pretty forward," Izuku said, not expecting such a blunt response.

"You may be a kid but you're not stupid. You know what The Butcher is, what it can do. I stand by what I told you that day. Go to the heroes or the police. Get yourself isolated. You died the day you became Butcher XVI."

When Izuku initially cycled through the echoes, he found Andre, he wasn't like the others. But what he told Izuku had spooked him. He ignored Andre for a while until he got a better handle on the other echoes. Andre was the sanest by far and the most helpful.

"Honestly, what happened to XIV who then transitioned to XV, that's ideal. It kept The Butcher isolated for lifetimes. The heroes got XV's corpse along with the worn tinker tech that kept her alive. Maybe you can work your way into inspecting that tech. You've been spending time with V and X, maybe you can replicate it, maybe not. Till then," he turned to look at Izuku, and pointed at him, "The Mission: contain The Butcher by keeping you alive and sane for as long as possible. Training, fit body, healthy food, that's at least 60 years of guaranteed livelihood."

Izuku didn't say anything but nodded. He decided to venture a little further.

"If, Captain, if you don't mind me asking, how did you do it? How did you kill VI?"

He didn't say anything, instead, he gave a tight smile.

"Ah-sorry, it's just, breathing through your skin and need for less sleep isn't, it isn't-"

"No I understand," Andre replied, but he looked away. "VI was a tough one, explosive teleportation at its most powerful, danger sense, agony infliction. ROE is to run from the Butcher. Didn't do my squad any good, we were picked off one by one. Eventually it was down to me. It was awful luck but in my attempt to run I triggered. Parahumans have a sort of universal weakness, another parahuman triggering nearby. We're not sure what happens but parahumans are out of it. I took the opportunity and I ended up killing The Butcher."

"...don't you regret it?" Izuku couldn't help but ask.

"Every day," Andre nodded, "but it had to be done. I was dead either way. This way I could get The Butcher contained, hence my, err, cape name, 'The Mission.' The Teeth knew and went after me as fast as they could. Probably why I'm still all there," he motioned his head. "Didn't have enough time to drive me insane."

Izuku nodded to it.

The two settled into a comfortable silence soon after, content to watch the sea. Cherish and The Butchers would break out of Izuku's maze, but he was quick to trap them again. It got dark without Izuku realizing it.

"Go home and study kid," Andre suddenly said, "enjoy it while you still can."

Izuku didn't say anything.

He stood up and walked on home.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Sheesh, it's like an earworm. Had to get it out.

Originally I wanted Izuku to be quirkless or a regular human, but a lot of people are convinced that normal people wouldn't inherit the butcher, so I went with this. The original plan was Izuku bartering with Cherish, yes I know her name but her capename felt natural. Dressing up as a girl or going out and having sex with strangers for her amusement just to be sane, at least sane enough to live without becoming a mass murderer. But it didn't seem to fit. I think Cherish is like Alec where gender wasn't really an issue but like Alec she is pretty picky.

I feel that she'd be more than willing to get Izuku killed if it was by a girl she could manipulate and live through, like Toga or Uraraka. So this was an easy out to keep him sane. But as you read, he isn't any safer. The Butchers are experts on breaking people, but Cherish is an expert on making people think the way she wants them to. Slowly but surely, Izuku is getting desensitized to things that would make normal people pause in thought.

Astar is inspired by Nerris from Camp Camp, haven't decided if I want that to be her name or capename. Andre didn't have any particular inspiration. Originally I wanted Butcher three to train Izuku but he was driven insane by the first two butchers so I needed someone sane. My guess is that the butchers need someone to be broken and insane right before death so that it would be easier to suppress them in order to support future (proper) Butchers, otherwise the sane ones would try to contain the butcher, like Andre. Honestly, the real issue was creating abilities that were negligible if not straight-up pathetic.

Also, Andre was pretty content with the way things were with Cherish when she became the next butcher, it's just that Cherish didn't consider him in her group.

Well, night, morning, later, stay safe!


	3. Live

Jeez, my head is split in which direction to go, it's hard to hold back the nsfw. Read, enjoy, BUTCHER!

I don't own worm or mha/bnha

* * *

"UMPH!" Izuku let out as he crumpled on the floor while grasping his stomach.

It seems today was a bad day to ignore Cherish-via-trapping her in the mental maze he made...to which she volunteered this time...turns out it was fun...wait….

"Gettin' real tired of you ducking us Deku," Bakugo said as he crouched down and used his explosive quirks to blast Izuku to his side.

"GAH!"

That did it.

He lost his concentration.

Once more he was hit with a barrage of mixed commands and foreign thoughts and images.

He was asked to **kill**...so really nothing new. Well, at least the pain was numbed quite a bit and he was starting to heal faster, just not visibly, compliments of Butchers XII and XI respectively.

Now if only he wasn't slowly being driven insane.

"Jeez, nothing on him," another kid, one who could stretch his fingers out said. He had taken Izuku's wallet, said item held between his two elongated fingers. He pictured them breaking against his will, he could faintly hear a loud snap similar to snapping celery or corn in half, and the screams he'd make-Izuku fought hard to fold the voices away.

"Man what a waste of time." Another kid said.

"Tch, lets go," Bakugo tsked as he turned and walked away. The two boys followed behind him, casually tossing his wallet somewhere random.

Izuku stayed down, slowly folding all the echoes away, starting with the unnecessary ones. As much as he disliked XI and XII, numbness and healing felt pretty good at the moment. Cherish, however, was a different story altogether.

"If suicide's your hobby, I know much more enjoyable ways to indulge," Cherish said over the other fading voices, crouching while looking down on him with a spectral body.

Izuku ignored her and instead sat up and reached for the soles of his shoes. Weird coos and mewings reached his ears as he forced coins and bills out of the soles. A plus of always walking hunched over is that no one notices that your an inch or so taller than you're supposed to be.

He padded his soles with red clay using Butcher VIII's power, it clung to his red shoes and with Astar's help he figured out how to make it to support his weight without crumbling apart on its own. Butcher VIII's power to manipulate "unrefined" matter was pretty versatile and restricting at the same time, but Izuku made it work well enough. Sadly he, at least Izuku was sure it was a he, didn't really talk. He just let out weird sounds.

He glanced at the individual.

He was a wide man, slightly shorter than average. He wore stained briefs and a sleeveless vest in a stained camo pattern, letting his oily brown hair flow down to his butt. Not fat, mind you, just very wide. Andre had said that this one used to be called "Mud Snake" before becoming The Butcher. A bit contradictory to his appearance, but apparently at full strength he could use his power to move around pretty fast (provided he had enough vectors for his power), a bit redundant when he gained access to Butcher VI's ability.

Andre was still very bitter about how Mudsnake killed him. The very act itself was like an insult to the echo.

Once Izuku collected his money, he folded Butcher VIII back into the maze but not before reshaping the clay into red bracelets with All Might's symbol on it. They had a bit of weight to them, especially with how tightly he packed the clay, but he was used to it.

"Let's go to a club," Cherish said, Butcher XI and XII content with just sending him images of the Teeth's night parties. Mass of writhing bodies pressing up against one another. Syringes, bottles, bags of pills and powder, fun and pleasure he could never fully grasp through second-hand knowledge. He didn't like it. "It's dark, loud, and you can get away with basically anything!"

"Can't, I have things I need to buy," Izuku muttered, using her power to keep tabs on Bakugo and his friends. Images of crushing a man's windpipe with a single hand flashed through his mind. Several times. Izuku shook his head. Fear in their eyes, veins bulging during the struggle, fac-

Izuku folded the two Butchers away, it's not like he was hurt bad to begin with, their powers just made an awful experience more bearable.

"Help me help you, kid," Cherish said with bored sigh as Izuku started walking, "as much as I _love_ seeing you struggle as you slowly grow more and more demented," he scowled at that, "it's honestly more effort than I bargained for, especially for such a boring ass payoff. I mean c'mon, look at that blonde cutie and his pals, you could easily wire them, make it so that they get extremely bored or guilty whenever they see you, finally leaving you alone. Or hey, you guys were close once, right? You could be like that again. Instead of beating on you, you can beat on others with them, together, as friends." Cherish had spouted it in such a sincere and touching manner that it looped back around to sound completely insincere.

Izuku didn't say anything, he just did his best to ignore her.

"Or, hey-check it out, there's a horny bitch over there," she got in his line of sight and pointed at a woman with dog ears wearing a large trench coat, a mask, and a cap when the weather didn't really justify it. He could make out a black shiny collar on her neck. She had a blush as she focused on her drink, some frozen beverage.

"Sex does _wonders_ when your stressed, frustrated, feeling down, or, you know, your just bored," Cherish continued. "I mean-_just _feel the music in her! Embarrassment, excitement, ecstasy. It's not 'evil' or rapey if she's in the mood for it. Hell, you might not even need my power at all; just walk up to her table-"

Izuku quickly sped past the woman's table.

"-oooor do that. Jesus, out everyone, my murderer just _had_ to be a prude," Cherish whined in frustration.

Izuku couldn't help but growl a little. Yes he was responsible but it's not like he wanted to do it, he was just as much of a victim and she knew that! She just wanted to irritate him.

Bakugo was away, there wasn't anyone in the mood for hurting others nearby, so he folded Cherish away.

"Ah-uh, not this time," Cherish said while shaking her head, flowing past the folds he made.

"Wha-" Izuku let out in confusion as he stopped in place.

"Yeah-it's called learning," Cherish said while rolling her eyes, "maybe you should try it. It'd help in multiple instances, bullying for example."

Izuku groaned loudly, catching a few stares but he ignored them. He had a feeling that it was going to be a long day.

"On that note, you're in for a rough night, you know, just an FYI," she warned.

"..."

"..."

"...why?"

"Cause I can."

* * *

Izuku woke up the next day feeling a bit more than restless and _just a little _stir-crazy.

He folded the voices away, Cherish tried to slip away, but he managed to catch her this time.

He got out of his sheets, placed his feet on the ground and stayed seated on his bed.

"It's dangerous," Andre said while looking at him from the corner of his room, propped against a wall with his arms folded.

"I know, I know," Izuku said as he rubbed his forehead. "I'll…" Izuku sighed again, "I'll figure something out."

Turns out that even if Izuku goes to sleep, the echoes didn't. He usually kept Andre out for his ability, but even that didn't do much. Andre's helped reduce how much sleep he needed, but he couldn't overpower the other voices.

They'd whisper sweet terror in his sleep, provoke nightmares and demented dreams that left him restless. Sometimes his dreams were wild interpretations of the Butcher dying and becoming the next Butcher. Not particularly a fun experience. Its why he reserved his hardest puzzles for when he goes to sleep. Keeping it in shape was similar to staying still when one slept. That didn't mean he didn't accidentally undo the folds but it got him a few hours of peaceful sleep.

"It'll start soon, you know," Andre said, "the bargains."

"...I know," Izuku said, feeling a little helpless at the moment.

It was a reasonable conclusion. The Butcher, the collective who shared that identity with glee, wanted him either dead or aligned with their line of thought. In other words, a "proper" Butcher, a leader of The Teeth.

They were whittling him down, but he could feel how antsy a lot of them were getting at how long it was taking, especially from the echoes he rarely has "facetime" with, if at all. Sooner or later they'd have to compromise, barter with him. He wasn't looking forward to it.

Images of his mother flashed through his mind. Then green nature invaded his thoughts. A fervent river flowing down into cascades, birds singing and vegetables growing in abundance. A wooden cabin with solar panels and an antenna provided modern comfort and entertainment. The Ability to live at the cost of your own hard work and sweat, away from the clutter of everything and anything. No cars, no disgruntled people, and no drama, just peaceful nature. Tranquil isolation.

"Captain," Izuku said loudly, "do you mind?"

Izuku didn't see it but he could feel Andre put his hands up in defeat.

"Thanks," Izuku muttered.

He took a deep breath as he let himself fall back on his bed.

Andre stayed silent, allowing Izuku to enjoy the moment of silence.

When he felt ready, Izuku stood up.

"Light run," Andre said as he glanced out the window, the sun wasn't even out yet. "After that, give your body a break. A body needs time to properly rebuild itself. If you really feel like moving around, just do light exercises. Nothing extraneous."

Izuku didn't say anything, he just nodded.

He was quickly dressed in sweats, red shoes, and T-shirt with All Might's logo, then he was out the door.

* * *

Izuku looked at the money in his hands as he walked inside the bookstore.

It always made him feel conflicted for some reason.

He got the money from selling stuff like copper and other metals he scavenged from the beach(landfill), and some appliances he fixed up and sold to second-hand shops. Of course he did disclose where he got the appliance and that did affect the amount of money he got for them. Still a fair amount though.

He used Maverick's tinker power to identify stuff he could scavenge and sell and used Astar's and Acuman's power to help with the scavenging. So it wasn't doing harm nor was he stealing. Anything he fixed was properly sterilized and he made sure, using Astar, that the appliances would last. Yet he didn't feel right getting money this way. He really didn't know why.

But he shook the thought out of his head.

He really didn't know about replicating what happened to Cherish, nor was he particularly interested in doing it to himself, but at the very least he could work his way to investigating how the technology worked, just in case. That's assuming he ever found out where that piece of tinker tech was located and is given the opportunity to look at it. But to actually know what to do when he got there was going to require a lot of work on his end.

Maverick was a tinker before she accidentally killed The Butcher, and Izuku inherited a portion of that power. According to Andre, tinkers have a specialty, a niche field of focus. Sometimes it's a niche within a niche, other times it's all over the place with a gimmick. From what he was able to get out Maverick, her specialty...is along the lines of making **Point A connect with Point B.**

It wasn't exactly civil engineering or transportation. A knife could be Point A and a tree could be Point B, how the knife connected with the tree is the question Maverick tries to solve in "creative" ways, hence her cape name.

Solutions include: a rail gun, a matter displacement device, a blackhole grenade that packed everything into a single space, a trebuchet made from chewing gum and dental floss, a radio made from a coconut with a razor blade for an antenna, and the thing that accidentally killed The Butcher, a teleportation device.

It was a specialty that could work both against and with whatever the thing is that Cherish was trapped inside of. Sadly, that was before she became The Butcher and still had the entirety of her power. When Izuku used the portion of Maverick's power he inherited, he found that he had a very hard time creating anything at all.

If Izuku had to describe the power, it was "Inspiration with Instructions," but the instructions were too faint for him to see or understand. Probably because it's only a portion of the power. It was similar to staring at a paper you are going to use for your essay, knowing the general outline of how you want to fill the page, but the words just aren't appearing. Meaning at best he can just fix appliances and whatnot, which is what previous Butchers have done if he understood it correctly. But he had an advantage over other people from The Butcher's reality, actually, he had an advantage over other tinkers.

Education.

"Dhat one! 0h! That one 2!" Maverick said pointing at the books. Izuku quickly took the books off the shelf and proceeded to go to the counter before Maverick started picking out a bunch of books again.

In his reality, his earth, technology was decades ahead of Earth Bet, and the various support items that heroes used showed it. Heck, there was even "I-Island," a mobile artificial island filled with scientist! Sure it wasn't the Toybox Andre and Maverick talked about, but it was still a testament to how advanced his reality is.

Support wasn't exactly his first choice of career, but to get the most use out of Maverick's ability, and avoid relying on The Butcher's more useful abilities(and be subjected to their original owner's torment), he needed to get smarter and crafty. Even if that means joining UA's dedicated Support Department.

He frowned at the thought. He has 16 abilities, his own included, he more than enough to try and be a hero, and yet he was sure that joining the Heroics Department was just asking for trouble. Just a small scuff from Bakugo was enough for him to lose his hold on the folds, actual hero training would probably be worse than that. To add to that, he was still registered as Quirkless. How was even supposed to go about telling others he had a "quirk" or 16? Could he even reliably use a useful one when he's fighting to stay sane? At the moment, he doubted it.

Once he got to the counter, he handed the books to the clerk who blinked at the selection. Izuku shrugged in response with a wry smile. The clerk shrugged back.

As the clerk began to ring up his purchase, Izuku glanced at Maverick.

Maverick was a tiny person, even shorter than Izuku (by about half his height) and had a very broad body. He didn't want to be mean to what he was sure was an adult, but if he had to think of fictional dwarf like the ones seen in western fantasy series, Maverick's body would be what he thought of. Her appearance was something else entirely though. She wore a yellow jumpsuit with black stars coming down her pudgy chest in a [V] pattern, had the left half her head shaved with the other half shortened and stylized and dyed blue, had brown eyes but one eye had a lighter color than the other, and she had "Maverick" tattooed sideways on her right cheek.

Her left eye suddenly grew metal apperatices that spread to the shaved portion of her head. Slowly but surely, she started to look more and more like a mutilated android.

"Thread the needle through your iiiiii~" she suddenly said in a low voice in a melodic tune.

"This one killed herself," Cherish voice said, startling Izuku, though the clerk didn't seem to notice. "Shoved a needle through the corner of her eye, practically a botched lobotomy," she said as her body appeared crouched by a few magazines she inspected.

"Deep-deep-deep it goes~"

"Apparently she couldn't tinker with the voices in her head, couldn't take it anymore. Sadly for everyone, that didn't stop The Butcher. The closest person became Butcher XI, though to him I guess that was a happy little accident," Cherish continued as Izuku received a small bag and paid for it, offering the clerk a nod and thank you.

"Clutter, clutter, clutter, like white noise sputter, white noise to river, white noise dam, dam, dam~" Maverick continued a smile, her right eye beating as she held her metallic face.

Izuku decided to fold Maverick away.

Izuku took a deep breath as he put what Maverick said in the context Cherish provided.

It was not a pretty picture.

"How does that work?" He finally asked as he walked out of the store with Cherish purposely getting into his line of sight, "tinkering?"

For a brief instant, he saw Cherish's top disappear, her tattoos out for the world (him) to see. Then her top was back. It was really fast but...he didn't like what he saw. It was just her back, and he wasn't sure if he wanted another look.

He saw the words "epithet" and "invectives" over and over again, surrounding the tattoos, framing it. The words didn't have a font, instead, it looked as if it was carved onto the skin with a knife or slashed on despite being a tattoo. Those words framed the rest of the tattoos that he barely had time to fully take in.

A giant ugly heart (the actual organ) was the biggest thing on her back. The thing looked diseased and that wasn't all. He could recall rats and roaches feasting on her flesh, he saw bones and organs on her back looking as if her actual back was cut open. It didn't look cartoony, it looked realistic, an effect that ink alone couldn't achieve.

"Who cares," she brushed the topic off, turned to focus on a nearby girl's outfit. "There's a theatre around here right? Let's watch a movie."

Izuku didn't say anything.

He sighed as he did a mental tally of the money he had left. If he was being honest, the covers on the books he bought were daunting enough as it is, he was not looking forward to reading and rereading them. A movie might do him some good.

"Fine," he let as he resigned himself to the task. "You can pick, just...no horror movies, alright?"

Cherish scoffed at that.

"My life's already a living horror flick, I doubt the movies could even hold a candle compared to all the shit I've seen and been through. Also, why do you sound like I'm dragging you off to an execution? It's a movie, they're enjoyable," she chided.

"I'm...not much of a going out person," he admitted while rubbing the back of his head.

"No kidding, you're boring as hell," Cherish said. Izuku could feel her roll her eyes. "Be honest little boi, your more alive now than you ever were."

"What-what are you talking about?" Izuku could help but get defensive.

"Before you murdered me, what have you been doing?"

"Preparing to be a hero," Izuku replied without hesitation, then he bit his bottom lip when he felt the people around him glance at him with odd looks.

He picked up the pace and got away from the crowd.

"Oh really? How so?" Cherish said with a smirk as she walked backwards. Her image going through people.

Izuku didn't say anything.

"Oh lemme guess? Notes? I saw the stacks in your room. Maybe you thought you could analyze people for weakness, like how you do with V on your spare time? _Forget_ hero, I don't know if you could have even been a consultant with just that. And your body? Pff-hahahahaha, heh, ohhhh, don't-don't get me started," she laughed.

Izuku tried to fold her away but she was well prepared this time.

"Even after you got us, you didn't do much," She continued as she weaved her way out of the folds, "you were wasting away until Andre got sorry for you."

"Shut up," he muttered.

"Why? I'm just stating facts. If you think their wrong, then refute them. You have an argument, don't you? C'mon, give me one."

"People miss things all the time," he muttered as he entered an empty alley, he didn't trust himself to not be verbal and the alley was mostly devoid of music, "I could be the kind of-"

"What? A tactician? At best, the way you were going, you'd be, I dunno, a discount Batman? Heh, not even that, though maybe you could run around as Captain Hindsight, pointing out what they should have done, I'm sure that'd go by just _swell _with real heroes."

"You don't know," he practically hissed out.

"No one know's anything," a man with a paper bag over his head said. He was sitting with a garbage bag with his back to the wall, the music coming off him was frantic and erratic, a garbled mess. "**I know everything!**"

"I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU!" Izuku shouted at the man. The man flinched and Izuku paused realizing what he did.

"Real smooth hero," Cherish said looking down at the man with the paper bag over his head with a satisfied smirk, "yelling a guy who's clearly fucked up in the head."

"Sorry," Izuku quickly said as he sprinted.

"You better run jerk!" The man yelled at his back. "No, wait, comeback! I need LOOOOOOVE!"

"Run, run, run, that's all you ever do," Cherish continued, floating around him, avoiding the folds he made. "A green-tinted roach afraid of light, a small insect content with surviving."

Izuku tripped and landed on the floor chin first.

"The truth hurt's don't it?" Cherish crouched in front of him. "Before you became Butcher XVI, you were nothing. Just a sad soul wasting away with self-fueled delusions of grandeur. You were surviving day to day, hoping for something good to come your way. News flash, the world doesn't work that way. It's so far from fair its not even funny. Tch, hero? Ha. Can't even stop a few bullies let alone a villain. To make it all worse, you didn't even try to live."

"Shut up," Izuku said, trying to fold Cherish away with new intricate shapes.

"Refute me. Name one thing you did that didn't revolve around 'All Might.' Something you like. Anything. Favourite song? Favourite movie? How about a book? Or did you spend every waking hour worshiping a hero, hoping your devotion would one day pay off? Heh, worshiping a man who's probably as fucked up as the rest of us."

Izuku grunted as he pushed himself to his feet and swung his bag at Cherish. Said bag passing threw her smirking figure.

"Now though? Now you're reading this!" she motioned the bag, "these...boring-ass things _I actually _have a hard time pronouncing," she stepped forward.

"Arg!" Izuku chucked the bag at her.

"Now you're whipping your body into shape. Probably hoping you could salvage something out of this." Izuku started experimenting with the fold. It didn't have defined a shape.

"Shut up!"

"FACE IT!" She gripped his shoulders and brought her face to his! "Now that you're The Butcher, you're actually trying to live! You're finally starting to walk. Working out, reading things, broadening your horizons, planning your life out; your finally stepping into the world instead of wallowing in your helplessness. You are actually putting in the work to make a future, to face uncertainty, however pointless it is." She laughed. "Hahahaha, heh, despite it all, killing me, becoming one of us, becoming **The Butcher, **it's probably the best thing to ever happen to you...and ain't that the fucked-up truth?"

This time he caught her, he made something of a net, one she couldn't weave her way out of, though it seemed like she didn't even try to dodge that time.

He could hear her cackle echo in his head as he folded her back into the maze.

He caught his breath as he calmed himself down.

He moved to where he threw his bag and bent down to pick it up. Tears hit his hands as he grabbed the dirtied bag. Tears were trailing off his face.

"_...Why couldn't you just shut up and wait to pick a movie?"_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

A repeated argument I make, that I don't see a lot of people address in fanfiction outside of comments, is that despite all his talk of being a hero, Izuku didn't really do much in the way of achieving that dream before meeting All Might.

Lol, people really forget just how traumatized the nine left Cherish, which made me realize that, no, she would, in fact, not like Toga. Going to have fun with that XD. Anywho, with Izuku seeing a moment of weakness, I imagine that Cherish would quickly do her best to break him down.

Um, Acuman is a play on Acumen, you'll see more next chap.

I really debated Maverick's power and I needed something to justify Izuku not offing himself for the betterment of others. I feel that having the butcher in your head would REALLY get in the way of getting any tinkering done, hence Maverick's need to do anything just to be able to use her powers.

I really disliked the way Butcher VIII's power is described as "manipulate Unrefined Matter" with no further explanation outside of what we see the butcher do. Mudsnake is a way for me to get around that, you'll see.

Well, later gators. Feel free to leave stuff in the reviews! Communication is the best way to avoid frustrations!


	4. Good?

Hey, hope everyone is enjoying the new year! Some news for my BNHA heavy fan. I've been working on an Izumina interactive fanfiction. I have some progress on it, but it's still in the works. It's both fun and frustrating. In a sense, it is basically writing four stories at once. Whelp, thats it for the news. Read, enjoy, and Review!

I do not own Worm or MHA/BNHA

* * *

**Crunch**

_Too buttery_. That's what Izuku thought as he ate the butter-soya flavored popcorn.

Cherish sat on his shoulders, her legs kicking up and down in his line of sight, her elbows on his head that propped her own head up. He felt the pressure of the legs, the elbow, and at the same time he didn't, such an odd sensation, one he could never fully get used to. However, annoying as it was, he was still able to enjoy the movie.

"_Star Wars_," Cherish said with a bored expression. And not for the first time either. "Of all the fucking things, its _Star Wars._"

Izuku smiled as he shoved another kernel into his mouth.

"I'm going to get even, you know."

He ignored her.

It was an old version of the saga, Izuku didn't know if it was the original or close to it, but it was a decent film. It was the fifth one in the saga. The film was in English but he didn't mind, aside from learning English on his own because of All Might, most of the Echoes spoke English as their main language, and that proficiency bled into Izuku.

"I'll start shouting again," Cherish boringly threatened.

Izuku shrugged. She already did that and got bored after a few minutes. He doubted she'd be able to go longer than that without getting bored again.

He grabbed his drink and took a sip.

* * *

"Next time, I'm picking the goddamn movie!" Cherish said.

"Sure," Izuku said as he left while the movie credits were still playing, everyone else still sitting down until the credits ended. Light didn't turn on otherwise.

"I mean it."

"Mhmm."

"No I'm serious," she said. "I mean, really, why that one?"

"It wasn't All Might or about superheroes heroes," Izuku pointed out.

"It was fucking boring and outdated as hell!"

"I liked it," Izuku shrugged, his eyes readjusting to the light as he made his way out of the cinema.

"ARRRG," he could feel her frustration.

"Well, what movie do you wanna watch?" He muttered as he walked by a few people.

"I DON'T KNOW!" She shouted from the top of her lungs, startling Izuku. He caught a few stares but he just blushed as he rushed for the exist, feeling's Cherish's grin as she followed behind him.

He exited the cinema. He checked the time on his phone, it was just past noon.

"Maybe if I set time for you to look at trailers," Izuku suggested. Like it or not, a movie was a cheap price to avoid Cherish's harassment. Also, this way he could see just how much English bled into him.

"Should have done that the first time," she said while crossing her arms.

Izuku just shook his head at her attitude as he started walking. He pulled out a very showy wireless headphones and turned it on so the light was blinking. It was a lot easier to get away with muttering or even talking to himself if he pretended it was on the phone and because of how uggly looking it looked, he doubted anyone would want to steal it.

He turned his focus to the music around him. All around him were various songs, different rhythms, pace, and genres. He had gotten the hang of it, but Cherish was obviously a lot better at using the power than he was.

He could feel it. Anticipation, depression, sadness, joy, desire, lust. It was always there, will always be there, but he just never noticed. Sure he knew people all around him had problems and issues they dealt with. But now, he could feel it. A man down the street is agitated, growing more so as he stomped his foot on the ground and smoked. Two people in a nearby building are near each other, their music harsh and gritty, a verbal fight probably. The two girls who passed him, one of them invisible, laughing away about nothing, their song bright and cheery.

Heck, in the direction he was heading in, he could hear excitement, desperation, desire, duty, it was a violent song that clashed with an inspiring one. A fight between a hero and a villain. That was just him being able to passively sense a few blocks. He could extend his range to half a city if he tried hard enough. But he couldn't focus on EVERY song like cherish seems to be able to. And when she was alive, she could easily do an entire city without overexerting herself….

"Hey Cherish, how long have you had your powers?" He couldn't help but ask in a low tone.

"Hell if I know," was her blunt reply. "Didn't exactly have a reason to track the time, even before I became The Butcher. But I had my powers for a long time if that's what you're fishing for."

"I see," he said as he finally started moving.

"What? Trying to figure me out?" Cherish asked as Izuku shrugged again. "Not that hard, to be honest. Born a villain's daughter, raised to be a villain, became a villain. Simple as that if you believe the labels."

"And the not so simple?" He asked as he weaved through the people.

"I didn't believe in the bullshit everyone else does," she replied nonchalantly. "When you get powers like mine, the world is literally your oyster. Hell, that cunt I call 'daddy' showed my siblings and I how it's done. Anything I want, I got it. Clothes, movies, money, certain drugs, hunky boi-toys, maybe some girls too if I'm ever in the mood for it. Live the cape life the way it's meant to be lived."

"What about living life normally?"

Cherish snorted, "why the hell would I do that?"

Izuku was bombarded with images of disparity. Rich and poor, happy and frustration. Aspiration and depression brought on by hope, all seen through other people. He then realized that those weren't from her past, they're from his present.

"Honestly," she continued, "that's like asking millionaires to donate their wealth to those who make less than they do and settle for living on minimum wage at some slave labour job, all the while spouting the bad things that happen to millionaires or people who win the lottery. There's danger, sure, but the same could be said for an idiot trying to rely on being tough alone."

"It's not about money," Izuku replied, "its-"

"What? Fairness? Equality? No wants fair or equal. Everyone wants that extra olive, the extra dollar in their paycheque, the best discount, the best possible deal. People want the hot girl everyone admires, to be the one everyone admires, to be number one, to be heads and shoulders above the rest. The ones who don't want any of that are usually the ones who get stepped on. I mean, look at this," Cherish motioned to the fight Izuku had purposely approached

It was some sort of giant fishman blasting light from it's Angler like antennae at some sort of hero with a firefighter gimmick who can manipulate water. The fishman was definitely three times Izuku's height, wore brown cargo pants and a white sleeveless undershirt, he had green skin and large fishlike snout with gills on his neck. He had three gym bags strapped to his back that leaked money.

Izuku folded Astar out.

"And she's out, perfect," Cherish rolled her eyes. Izuku shrugged as he walked around the crowd of onlookers being held back by the police. He found a good vantage point

"You were saying something about-" Izuku muttered only to be cut off.

"-About if the system was perfect or at least fair, this probably wouldn't be happening. I mean c'mon, Fish Sticks over there is just doing his damndest to make it big. Don't your next words be some stupid speal about honesty and hardwork versus stealing. C'mon, argue, what's Fish Sticks to do to make the same amount of money he's stealing in this society. Maybe not as fast as stealing, but still pretty fast, go!"

"Um...deep sea fishing?" Izuku ventured. Astar and Cherish both turned to him with raised eyebrows. "I mean, Fish Sthc-er-the villain could apply for a license to use a quirk to go deep sea diving, using said quirk for salvage recovery or scrapping. Maybe use it as a sort of lightshow. I mean I'd have to know more about what the villain could do to give better options."

"Eh," Astar shrugged as she turned to look at the ongoing fight, her power helping him record things. Cherish turned to look at Astar with a sour face. She opened her mouth to say something but Izuku cleared his throat.

"Ahem, Cherish, movie," Izuku said. He could feel Cherish seeth and roll her eyes, but she didn't harrass Astar.

"Okay, then, I'll give you that last point. But it goes to show that the first thing you thought of was that guy's quirk, not his education."

"Ah."

"Yeah, see, I caught you." She said with a smirk. "We all make do with our talents, even if they put us odds with the law."

"But plenty of people make do without a quirk or ability, following the law," Izuku argued as he watched the fight.

The villain shot another beam of light at the hero.

"And they're all left wanting more and more while people who don't follow those silly lil' rules make off like kings," Cherish said.

The hero dodged and whipped his long tendrel made of water at the villain. The villain fumbled at the impact, but the hero wasn't done, the water quickly wrapped around the villain. The tentacles wrapped around the legs and arms, making it difficult for the villain to move said limbs to any useful effect.

"You're under arrest!" The hero declared.

Everyone in the crowd cheered.

"I wonder what that hero gets paid, probably not as much as that hero you have plastered in your room does. Hell, I doubt it's enough to see the kind of money Fish Sticks was lugging around, at least not fast enough."

Izuku didn't argue with her there, the hero wasn't a particularly popular one. That wasn't to say he was bad or anything, he just wasn't popular. He's been around a while, most of his public appearances has been cases where his quirk can get the best results, like fires. Not particularly marketable.

"Surprised," Cherish asked. Izuku didn't answer her. He wasn't paying attention earlier, but now that the fight was over he didn't need to. It was obvious.

The inspiring song...was from the villain. Duty and determination, and also desperation, they disappeared and became fear and disappointment.

The song of desire, desperation, and excitement, all three had come from the hero. Desperation had faded a little but was still there, excitement too, but desire, it was still loud and not in a good way. It was like someone playing a happy song in a dark tone.

"Heroes get paid by villains captured, or something like that, right?" Cherish continued, "he must have been in particular bind or in need for a villain. Fish Sticks though, oh boi. Even though he robbed that money, he still felt like he was in the right. He felt it was his duty to get that money, maybe for family or a loved one. Who knows, and listen to that roaring crowd," she gestured, "they certainly don't care, nor would they if they found out the reason why. All they care is that the hero defeated the villain."

"I'm not dumb you know," Izuku said as he stared at the crowd, "not all villains are bad people, some are just desperate."

"Can't fault us for choosing wrong when wrong's the only option." Surprisingly enough, it was Astar who spoke. Her figure looked disheveled. "No PRT around, bigger cities mean bigger cape fights." As she spoke her figure got worse and worse.

"Huh, guess _you _triggered her this time," Cherish said in amusement.

"Not honest, but it was decent. We worked and played, we lived and struggled, but it was alright. It was a home before The Teeth took a bite," she continued, her body began to tremble. Izuku folded her away.

When she was gone, he stood silent.

"They're not going to get better," Cherish said.

Izuku ignored her as he began moving. The cops were already putting restraints on the villain and only a quarter of the crowd had stayed behind to view the spectacle.

"None of them will," she continued, "trust me, I tried. Not out of the goodness of my heart, mind you, but because talking to the sane ones were getting boring. Also, curiosity, I guess."

"They're not sane," Izuku muttered under his breath, but the bitterness was very much implied.

"They're deviant, not insane," Cherish said smugly.

"No one sane woul-"

"Kill humans and lose touch of reality, yada yada, we've had this talk already. It isn't that they lost touch with reality, more that they simply didn't care what it was and just did what they wanted. Mostly killing and partying like it was the end of the world," She said. "Though I guess they probably had the right idea," that time it was like she was saying it more to herself than to him.

"They're bad people," he couldn't help but say.

"Are you a good person?"

"I'm not killing people," he replied. "Of my own free will," he quickly added.

"Not what I asked," Cherish said.

"I think I'm a good person," he replied.

"A good person who has yet to report that he has multiple abilities, the main one of which is slowly making him more deranged. A ticking time bomb, as it were."

"It's...not technically a quirk," he lamely defended.

"Tick tick tick," she replied smugly.

Izuku couldn't help but sigh at that, running a hand down his face.

Right, the most just and responsible thing to do was:

**One**, report the murder he commited(against his will);

**Two,** report the manifestation of multiple abilities (leaving the mental gymnastics about a quirk's definition to someone else);

**And** **Three,** report that there's a very good chance he might lose his sanity and start harming the people around him. Quite possibly the people he cares about….

But if he did that, he'd either be killed by someone who took advantage of his captivity and is not afraid of going deranged or insane. Or he would be isolated in captivity until he died. Or put into a medical coma. Or a hundred other things when you factor in quirks.

Who was he kidding?

Izuku is afraid of what would happen and worse of all, he's afraid of what would happen if his parents found out.

Thankfully, his mother hasn't caught on yet that he has an ability, or several. His body getting muscular and his sudden interest in making things, it made her overjoyed that he was moving on to other stuff. Honestly he didn't know how he felt about that.

From the very beginning, everyone had told him it was impossible to be a hero without a quirk or "super powers". Everyone said it as if it were a matter of fact. Even his own mother thought it was impossible. She did her best not to show how she felt about his goals, but he could always tell that she felt anxious and worried about his choices. He knew how worried she was that he had no interest outside of pro heroes or how he had no back up school or other prospects other than UA.

His sudden interest in making things and working out, not to mention how he stopped saying he wanted to get into the hero course, it made his mother overjoyed. He was glad she wasn't worried anymore...but it still stung deep inside.

"Here comes a thought," Cherish began as she ran forward, shot her arms out and started spinning on top of one foot, "do whatever you want!"

She spun and spun, sliding on one foot as she stayed in front of him, her imaginary form going through people who just went on with their life. She giggled as she kept spinning.

"Dizzy?" He asked.

"Newp," she said as she stopped to face him, almost as if she never spun at all. "Jealous?"

"A little," he admitted, "doing that and no one being bothered, that's pretty ideal," he said.

"Again with _others_," she said rolling her eyes as she walked backwards. "Ya know, outside of capes and cowls, having no regards for others is pretty normal. Two venders sell two different types of food, hotdog vs burger. But there's only one customer with enough money for only one food item. Only one of those two will earn a profit ya know."

"...it doesn't have to be like that."

"What are you, a communist?" Cherish joked, Izuku couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Jokes aside, it really doesn't, but there's a reason Capitalism is so widespread. Hell if I could actually explain it though."

He didn't say much. From the get go, he wasn't the type to make debates or arguments, so going out of his way to win one isn't exactly something he would do regularly, but Cherish had a way of riling him up.

Really he could just say something that sounded correct if he was really intent. But he was the type to avoid talking about something he didn't know much about. Heroes, perfect. Politics and the current political climate and how it affects everyone, that's a no go.

So he kept quiet as he walked, not willing to get riled up for something he didn't really have much interest in.

"You're boring you know that," she said, poking his cheek. He could help but angle his face away.

Last he checked, there wasn't anything wrong with being boring. Why take risks? If you like a meal, why agonize over change? Winning an argument usually won you imaginary points and that's if you convince a stubborn person to change their stance. Looking at it practically, boring was bes-

A chill went down his spine when he felt something with Cherish's power. It was strong enough to make him pause.

"C-Cherish...what-what i-is that?" He concentrated on that music, a melody that would ordinarily be cheery being played in dark tones with twisted fever, the song constantly building and building, teetering on the edge of climax!

"Hm? Isn't it obvious?" She tittered with a smug smile. "Blood lust," she answered. "Someone's looking to thrill-kill."

He was already running before Cherish finished answering.

"Oh gawd, don't tell me you're seriously going to be a _hero_ about this," Cherish asked she floated beside him with an annoyed expression. "Besides that, isn't this breaking the law? Shouldn't you go back and get that water-hero? He'd certainly appreciate the chance to put another 'evildoer' behind bars. Hell, you'd probably make his day with that!"

"By then it'd be too late!" He shouted as he ran, maneuvering around a crowd as he slowly made his way to the source of that particular song!

"Going against the law to do what you want, huh? You're learning~" Cherish cheered. "We'll make a villain out of you yet."

"Damn it, this isn't about that!" he half shouted, bringing his hoodie over his head. He also folded out three echoes. "This is self defense!"

"Pretty flimsy," cherish said.

"From the sounds of it," Andre said, "you're doing something reckless and impulsive."

"Pretty much," Cherish answered.

"Ignore them," Butcher II said, "focus only on the slaughter," followed by a few graphic images of such a thing.

"..." Acuman didn't say anything but Izuku could feel him gaze around with imaginary eyes.

Izuku's skin began inhaling oxygen and directing them straight to his muscles, he felt himself become more alert; Andre's power. He became able to see people's cardiovascular system even through objects, like his hoodie covering his eyes, Butcher II's power. But the most useful one was Butcher III-Acuman's power, danger sense and super strength!

After a few moments, Izuku's body adjusted to the various powers that suddenly sprung to life. Super strength, even if it was only a sliver, still took a while to get accustomed to. His steps had a lot more "oomph" to them, not to mention, danger sense is a weird feeling. He really hasn't had a chance to fully test it, the main reason being that he didn't feel keen on looking for trouble.

The areas at risk of "danger" would get something of a tingle. When that happened his body would sort-of move on it's own, a form of reflex he never had, in order to prevent colliding into "danger." He didn't know what it was like for Acuman when he had the power at its peak, but for Izuku at the power's sliver, it was just enough to designate "danger" in direct relation to his body.

His designation was physical contact.

Using the different powers at his disposal he was able to maneuver around the crowd with little effort.

With oxygen going straight to his muscles, his lung didn't need to work anywhere near as hard and with (a sliver) of superstrength he did not need to exert himself too much.

Once he was through the crowd he kept running.

He quickly made it at record speed, for himself anyway.

He made it to a secluded dark alley where an older man, oozing with songs of lust, stalked a blonde girl. The girl wore a uniform and seemed, from the back, to be around Izuku's age.

"...Oh c'mon," Cherish whined, "this is basically a freebie! Just ignore it. I saw a shop nearby with food on sale, you can use my power to get a 100% discount!"

"No...even if that's the case, I'm not about to let murder happen," Izuku said.

"Hmm, well, be careful," he could feel Andre shrug.

"Hush you two," Butcher II said, "this ones needs to become a man and-oh c'mon!" Izuku folded him away.

"Here to heed the call, through hail of bullets or fire," Acuman said to himself, flashes of images flew by Izuku's mind, images of Acuman when he rushed into danger with his staff in hand.

"Well, fuck it," Cherish said, "at least this will be the first interesting thing you do."

He did the first thing that popped into his head.

He passed the man while pulling back his hoodie and walked up behind the girl.

"Emi!" Izuku shouted, startling the girl.

"Eh?" she let out with a confused look, as she turned just enough to see him get close to her.

"There you are! C'mon we're gonna be late!" Izuku said while grabbing her hand and began to pull her along with him as he ran.

As much as he didn't like it, he was fully prepared to use Cherish' ability and manipulate the girl's song to go along with him. Thankfully, the girl went along of her own free will, she didn't even try to resist.

As he pulled her away from the man, Izuku could hear the man's hatred and disappointment.

After a while he made it to a secluded back alley away from people.

He let go of the girl's hand and blushed. He knew it was silly, all things considered, but it was his first time holding hands with a girl other than his mother.

"U-um, excuse me," He turned to look at the blonde girl who had a small blush on her face. She had her hair undone, letting her long blonde hair cascade down.

"Ah, sorry about that," Izuku said, turning to face away from the girl in embarrassment.

"Don't do that," Andre warned, but Izuku could feel Cherish wave him off. Acuman remained silent.

"Why did you do that?" The girl asked.

"Because, well..." Izuku rasped the back of his head, "I know...people wouldn't care, but I'm not like that. Even if he's a bad person, between the two of us, I'd rather it be me who gets attacked."

"Duck." Acuman said nonchalantly as Danger Sense flared to life on the right side of his neck. Izuku crouched down and spun to look at the girl.

"This is why you don't turn your back on a killer who isn't tied up," Andre said.

That's right, the person looking to kill wasn't the perverted old man, it was the blonde girl wearing a school girl uniform!

Danger Sense flared again and he moved backwards away from the blonde's attack!

She held a box cutter in her right hand with the blade fully extended. She's grinning ear to ear as she swung the blade at Izuku.

"He-he-he," the girl laughed, her song strong and roaring, it was a weird combination of lust, desire to kill, and love. "You wanted to be attacked by me~ OKAY! Let's be friends!"

"Well now, isn't she deliciously fucked up?" Cherish asked with mirth in her voice. Izuku ignored it and observed the blonde's movement as he kept evading her attacks.

"...Now!" He shouted as when he saw her thrust her box cutter, he curled his right hand into a fist and did back handed swing supported by Acuman's power and smacked the box cutter out of the girl's hand!

"Eep!" She yelped in pain as she jumped back while caressing her hand, her box cutter smacking against the wall of the alley.

Izuku sighed in relief, though he was unnerved that instead of being dissuaded or feeling fear, the girl got even more "excited."

"Fight's not over yet," Andre said, he could feel Acuman's give nod while Cherish laughed. Danger Sense flared on his face!

Once more, he ducked as a second box cutter sailed over his head, then his Danger Sense (which was still set to contact) flared again, this time it was his chest. The girl had charged right at him with incredible speed.

Even with Acuman's power, he barely had any time to react before he was tackled to ground!

"Fast," Acuman commented.

"Ah," he grunted as he landed on his back. His Danger Sense Flared on his left shoulder. Barely a heartbeat later a _third_ box cutter effortlessly broke the skin and sunk into his flesh!

"GAH!" He let out in pain, his tight grip on the fold gone, the maze becoming undone, the echoes coming out in full force.

She grinned down on him with a manic smile that showed off her pearly whites where her canines were more pronounced.

"My name's Himiko Toga, nice to meet ya!"


End file.
